TEXAS LEGISLATURE: Senate moves to keep 'temporary' maps

Redistricting bills miff Dems; House up next

AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Senate approved bills that would make temporary redistricting maps permanent, even as Democrats protested that senators are merely rubber-stamping Gov. Rick Perry’s plans for political cartography.

The bills would make permanent state Senate and House maps and congressional maps that a federal court established as temporary in an ongoing legal battle. Now those bills on redistricting will go to the House.

Redistricting was the first item on Perry’s call for the special session, which will end June 25.

The maps, drawn after the 2010 U.S. Census data came out, have been in federal courts because of allegations that the lines suppress the representations of minority groups, especially Hispanics who account for much of the state’s population increase.

Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, heads the select Senate Redistricting Committee, and he has said there inevitably will be more analysis of the maps and litigation.

“Those plans will help bring a close to this chapter of redistricting,” Seliger said of one of the three map bills.

Democrats protested strongly, saying the process is essentially set to carry out the governor’s wishes and not change maps from what the federal judges temporarily approved.

Hearings were held in Corpus Christi, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio after witnesses in Austin criticized the redistricting process as being rushed.

Perry originally worded his call to consider redistricting as a way to approve the temporary maps that federal judges drafted to allow Texas’ last election cycle to go ahead after delays. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott suggested the move during the regular session as a way to forestall litigation. Many in committees, as well as lawmakers, believe litigation might continue, but having the temporary maps approved could put the state on better legal footing.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, protested against bringing the redistricting bills to the Senate floor in the special session, because it effectively bypasses the need for a two-thirds majority to pass the bills that’s needed during the regular session.